PANJIM: Goa Assembly Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar will continue the hearing in the disqualification petition filed against MLAs Digambar Kamat and Michael Lobo on March 23.
On Friday, the arguments lasted almost two hours, with the respondents’ lawyer claiming that the petitioner — Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) President Amit Patkar, cannot file the disqualification petition. Instead, the respondents said that the party MLAs should have filed the disqualification petition.
Patkar had filed a disqualification petition against the then Leader of Opposition Lobo and Kamat stating that the duo had voluntarily given up the membership of the Congress party and they allegedly attempted to engineer defections in the Congress Legislative Party (CLP) in July last year.
After lengthy arguments, the Speaker posted the matter for further arguments on March 23, at 5 pm.
After the hearing, Patkar said that any interested person can file a disqualification petition as held by the Supreme Court.
“It looks like this argument will give a new way for setting a new precedent in the Goa Assembly. Let us wait and watch,” he said.
